How to Develop a BULLETPROOF Deep Work Studying Habit (Full Guide)
Summary
TLDRThis video script emphasizes the importance of developing a deep work habit for high productivity and creativity. The speaker shares personal experiences and insights from 'Deep Work' by Cal Newport, advocating for consistent, focused work sessions during peak energy times. The script outlines steps to cultivate this habit, including choosing the right time, planning tasks, setting work durations, and optimizing the workspace for minimal distractions. The ultimate goal is to harness deep work as a competitive advantage and a lifestyle for achieving significant accomplishments.
Takeaways
- 📚 Deep work is crucial for achieving competitive advantage and creating value in society.
- 🕒 Identifying the most productive time of day is essential for effective deep work.
- 🌟 Consistency in deep work sessions can be developed by scheduling them at the same time each day.
- 📈 Tracking deep work hours helps maintain accountability and monitor progress over time.
- 📈 Starting with shorter focus sessions and gradually increasing duration can build deep work stamina.
- 💡 Planning the specific task for deep work the night before reduces procrastination and increases clarity.
- 🏆 Deep work is not just for academic success but is a skill necessary for significant life achievements.
- 🧠 The brain's ultradian cycles suggest that 90 to 120 minutes is the optimal focus duration for deep work.
- 📱 Eliminating distractions, especially from phones, is critical for maintaining focus during deep work sessions.
- ✍️ Writing down the deep work task in a physical notebook can provide a clear and immediate action plan.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the video?
-The main focus of the video is to provide actionable steps for building an effective deep work habit, as outlined in the book 'Deep Work' by Cal Newport.
Why is deep work considered a competitive advantage?
-Deep work is considered a competitive advantage because it allows for intense focus and is rare in today's society. It's the source of innovative and valuable work that can lead to significant achievements and societal impact.
What are some examples of deep work?
-Examples of deep work include studying intensively, writing essays, solving complex problems, or creating new ideas that require uninterrupted focus and concentration.
How does the speaker suggest finding the most effective time for deep work?
-The speaker suggests finding the most effective time for deep work by assessing one's daily energy levels and alertness, and recommends starting with a trial period of 2 to 3 days to establish a habit.
Why is it important to plan the deep work tasks the day before?
-Planning deep work tasks the day before is important to reduce procrastination, increase clarity, and ensure that the most high-leverage tasks are completed, leading to better results and learning.
What is the recommended length for a deep work session?
-The recommended length for a deep work session is 90 minutes, aligning with the body's ultradian cycles. However, beginners can start with shorter sessions and gradually increase the duration.
How does tracking deep work hours help in building the habit?
-Tracking deep work hours helps in building the habit by providing accountability, allowing individuals to see long-term trends, and motivating them to maintain or increase their deep work sessions over time.
What role does the workspace play in deep work?
-The workspace plays a crucial role in deep work by providing an environment free from distractions, with an elevated and clean setup that promotes alertness and focus.
Why does the speaker recommend removing distractions like phone notifications during deep work?
-The speaker recommends removing distractions like phone notifications during deep work because they can significantly disrupt focus and attention, reducing the effectiveness of deep work sessions.
How does the speaker define deep work beyond just a study habit?
-Beyond being a study habit, the speaker defines deep work as a philosophy and lifestyle that involves focusing deeply on tasks to achieve meaningful work and personal growth.
Outlines
📚 Building Effective Deep Work Habits
The speaker introduces the topic of the video, which is about developing a deep work habit. They mention rereading the book 'Deep Work' by Cal Newport and plan to share insights gained from it. The speaker emphasizes the importance of deep work for achieving great things and how it has been a part of their life since high school. They outline their intention to teach five steps to build this habit, which has helped them achieve academic success by studying only a few hours a day. The speaker also invites viewers to request a summary of the 'Deep Work' book if they are interested.
⏰ Choosing the Right Time for Deep Work
The speaker discusses the first step in developing a deep work habit, which is selecting the optimal time for deep work. They explain that energy levels fluctuate throughout the day, and different people are most alert at different times. The speaker recommends assessing one's own energy patterns and suggests mornings as a common productive time. They share personal strategies, like waking up early to study before school, as a way to maximize deep work before the day's fatigue sets in. The speaker also encourages maintaining the deep work habit on weekends to ensure consistency.
📅 Planning and Scheduling Deep Work Sessions
The speaker moves on to the second step, which is planning the deep work tasks the day before. They argue that knowing the exact task reduces procrastination and increases clarity. The speaker also stresses the importance of choosing high-leverage tasks that yield the best results, such as doing practice exams rather than just highlighting textbooks. They recommend using a physical notebook to plan the next day's deep work tasks, which simplifies the process of starting work the next day. The speaker also touches on the idea of deep work being a rare skill and how it can give one a competitive advantage.
🕒 Determining the Duration of Deep Work Blocks
The speaker talks about the third step, which is deciding the length of deep work sessions. They mention that the human body operates in ultradian cycles of 90 to 120 minutes, suggesting that these cycles should guide the duration of deep work blocks. The speaker advises starting with shorter periods like 20 minutes if one is new to deep work and gradually increasing the duration as focus improves. They also emphasize the importance of scheduling these blocks in a calendar to reinforce the habit and ensure consistency.
🏋️♂️ Gradually Building Focus and the Role of Workspace
The speaker discusses the importance of starting with manageable deep work sessions to avoid burnout and maintain motivation. They compare it to physical exercise, where overexertion can lead to soreness and loss of motivation. The speaker also highlights the fourth step, which is optimizing the workspace for deep work. They suggest elevating the workspace, keeping it free from distractions, and maintaining a clean and organized environment. The speaker shares their personal workspace setup as an example and stresses the need to remove all distractions, especially phones, to enter a state of deep work effectively.
🌿 Creating a Deep Work Philosophy and Environment
In the final paragraph, the speaker emphasizes that deep work is not just a habit but a lifestyle and philosophy. They argue that deep work is essential for achieving great things in life and that it brings meaning and focus to one's work. The speaker encourages viewers to see deep work as a skill to be built up and to accept it as a part of life. They also share their personal approach to phone usage during deep work, advocating for turning off notifications to maintain focus. The speaker concludes by inspiring viewers to build the deep work habit and to embrace it as a beautiful way of life.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Deep Work
💡Habit Formation
💡Ultrasound Cycles
💡Competitive Advantage
💡Focused Intensity
💡Study Habits
💡Motivation
💡Planning
💡Workspace Optimization
💡Accountability
💡Distraction Management
Highlights
The video provides actionable steps for building an effective deep work habit.
Deep work is described as the competitive advantage in modern society.
The importance of knowing why deep work is crucial for motivation is emphasized.
Deep work is equated with the capacity for innovation and value addition to society.
The speaker shares personal experiences with deep work habits from high school and university.
A five-step process for developing deep work habits is introduced.
The first step is to identify the most effective time of day for deep work.
The concept of ultradian cycles and their impact on focus and productivity is discussed.
The recommendation to plan deep work tasks the night before to reduce procrastination.
The advice to choose high-leverage tasks that yield the best results.
The speaker suggests starting with shorter deep work sessions and gradually increasing duration.
The importance of using a calendar to schedule and reinforce deep work habits.
Tracking deep work hours to maintain accountability and monitor progress.
Optimizing the workspace for deep work by elevating the computer and minimizing distractions.
The philosophy of deep work as a lifestyle and its impact on achieving great things.
The video concludes with a call to action to build the deep work habit for long-term success.
Transcripts
so this video is going to be very very
actionable I'm going to tell you the
exact steps you need to build as an
effective deep work habit honestly a
habit that could let you do two hours of
study per day because I've been
rereading this book called Deep work by
count you bought 10 out of 10 book this
is like my fourth time reading it and
I'm getting a bunch of new insights and
I'm going to explain some of them in
this in this video but I'm also going to
teach you how to develop the Deep work
habit cuz throughout my entire life I've
had all sorts of deep work study habits
there were times in high school where
literally I would like study in every
opportunity I could I'd be on the bus
studying I'd read the physics textbook
before bed and there would be times in
my university life where I would
literally like schedule exactly when I
was going to study same time every
single day so I've also researched a lot
about how to develop habits how to build
deep work habits out of focus so I'm
going to give you the five steps
required to build a deep work habit that
helped me for the past 10 years honestly
get A's Straight A's only studying like
2 hours a day maybe two to three hours a
day max so by the way this book deep
work if you want me to make a summary on
this book 10 out of 10 book I've been
taking a bunch of notes on it if you
want me to make a detailed summary on it
please let me know in the comments I
want to know if you're interested in
hearing a summary on it so first of all
I got to tell you this is super
important if you want to be motivated to
do deep work if you want to be
constantly motivated you need to know
why deep work is important so let me
tell you deep work is basically deep
work is your competitive Advantage so in
the modern day the Innovative things the
things that add value to society right
like scientists you know the people who
are creating things actually adding
values to society changing Society this
comes from Deep work deep work is when
you sit down and you focus really really
deeply that's when like the true
creative output comes that moves and
changes Society so if you're like me and
you're like really ambitious you want to
actually achieve some great things in
your life like in high school I always
had dreams of like achieving some
amazing things in my life like creating
things that would literally change
humanity and if you're like me and you
want to live that kind of life and
Achieve those big things then the secret
to doing that is learning how to do deep
work learning how to actually sit down
and do this intense deep focus which is
where value is created like I like to
think of like some of the greatest like
scientists inventors of our time like
imagine like I read about KL Yung KL
Yung is this psychologist from 100 years
ago who revolutionized psychology and he
used to lock himself away in his garage
for hours at a time so he could achieve
those deep work states so learning deep
work is not just about how to study well
and get straight A's it's also a skill
required if you actually want to change
the world and actually achieve some big
things in your life so if you learn how
to do deep work this is your competitive
Advantage because here's the thing deep
work is rare another thing I learned
from this book deep work is extremely
rare you go to the library you look
around in society most people are doing
very very shallow work they're not
actually doing deep work like I heard
this statistic that in an 8 hour workday
most people only get about one or two
hours of work done because if you're one
of the few people who can actually do
deep work you're going to surpass
everyone surpass the competition and
you're actually going to change the
world and add value to the world and
actually you know make a [ __ ] ton of
money or actually make an impact on
society so listen carefully take notes
on what I'm about to say so the first
step to developing your deep work habit
is you need to pick a time and I'm going
to explain why all the times of the day
are not created equal so if you study in
the morning if you do deep work in the
morning versus if you do deep work in
the afternoon they're actually going to
be very different because our energy our
alertness throughout the day fluctuates
different people are high energy at
different times I know many people
probably you me as well during the
afternoon have a massive crash like in
the afternoon I'm just so tired honestly
I cannot really do deep work in the
afternoon it's very very difficult but
me in the morning as soon as I wake up
I'm alert I'm ready to go and also me I
get another peak in energy like around
late night time so a lot of my
University days I was doing a lot of my
work around midnight to be honest 10:
p.m. till like 2:00 a.m. was when I got
a ton of study done so what you need to
do is you need to assess your day and
you need to figure out what times you
are most effective you are most alert so
for most people I would recommend
honestly first thing in the morning
before you wake up what I used to do in
high school I used to wake up at 4:00
a.m. and do 1 hour of work before school
started because you go to school and
school is going to drain the energy out
of you and when you get home from school
you're going to be too dead to study to
be honest so IAL about this in the video
how to study after school when you're
tired but basically developing a study
habit of doing work before school is a
10 out of 10 thing if you can get at at
least an hour of deep work before school
it's going to take you very very far so
yeah that's what you need to do you need
to find the exact time that you're going
to do deep work ideally every single day
because here's what I leared from the
scientist Andrew hubman about building
deep work habits after about two or 3
days of doing deep work at the same time
say for example first thing when you
wake up at 9:00 a.m. if you do deep work
at the same time every single day for 2
to 3 days in a row your body will start
to get used to it and it'll become a
habit and you'll actually be able to
focus intensely much more easily so pick
a time and for at least 2 to 3 days just
try it just try focusing at the same
time for 2 to 3 days for about an hour
and you'll figure out that you can focus
very very well after about 3 days and
then just make it a habit keep going a
mindset here is most of society will
tell you that weekends are for relaxing
this is not necessarily the case you can
also study on weekends you might think
like oh bro why would I study on
weekends I want to relax
but you've got to do the same amount of
studying every week anyway why not
spread it out equally and do it on the
weekends as well so ideally at least 5
days a week pick the same time and do
some deep work at that exact time now it
might not be 100% possible for example
maybe the only free time you have is
between your classes me personally
between lectures in University I prefer
to take that time to socialize to meet
with friends to go to university clubs
so I could never really do deep work
during those times I preferred after
school or before school but pick your
times and literally schedule it into
your calendar when you're going to do
these because it's going to reinforce
that habit and you're going to pick the
times where your brain is best okay so
the second thing related to picking your
time before you actually go and sit down
and do the Deep work ideally the day
before you need to plan exactly what you
are going to do in that deep work block
now let me explain why so it reduces
procrastination massively by increasing
your Clarity if you know okay at 9:00
a.m. I'm going to wake up and I'm going
to do the physics 2017 paper or I'm
going to write 400 words of the intro to
my essay if you know the exact task
you're going to do then all you have to
do is just turn up open the document and
get to work it may seem like a useless
tip but this is very very essential
because it will reduce the friction
required to start the task that's the
first thing and the second thing is the
night before you can decide which task
is the highest leverage the thing that's
actually going to get you the best
results because for example let's say
you've got an exam in a week which task
do you think is going to get you the
better results actually push you further
along in your subject is it going to be
highlighting the textbook or is it going
to be sitting down and doing a past
paper it's going to be sitting down and
doing a past paper because when you do
the past paper that's when your neurons
get rewire that's when the learning
happenings that's when the learning is
happening I learned this recently
actually this is something that I
normally do but I learned this recently
the best learning happens when you're
testing yourself so a deep work task you
could do is writing an essay doing a
hard paper those are the tasks that you
want to pick because there's this
general rule about learning it's a very
very fundamental rule the best most
efficient learning is effortful it
requires effort it's not easy if
something was easy then you're not
learning as much so that's the thing
learning is actually meant to be
difficult it's meant to have some
friction to it so when you're doing past
paper when you're writing an essay it's
hard because it's helping it's effective
if you just sit down and you copy notes
from the lecture slides to your book or
you just highlight the textbook which is
what most students do it's easy
therefore it requires no effort
therefore not much learning is actually
happening learning happens when you test
yourself on the material when you do a
past paper so that's the second thing
pick exactly what task you're going to
do so how exactly do you do this
personally I use a physical notebook the
night before I will write down okay my
9:00 a.m. deep work block I'm going to
do this exact task so all I have to do
is look at it open up the document on my
computer and just type away it's very
very simple so now the third thing I
want to mention about building a deep
work habit you need to pick a length of
time so how long do you do deep work for
do you do it for 20 minutes like the
Pomodoro Technique do you do it for 5
hours well the general rule is our Body
Works in these things called ultradian
Cycles so our Body Works in about
periods of 90 to 120 minutes so 1 and 1
half hours to 2 hours is about the
maximum time we can focus at full
capacity so in general I make my deep
work blocks honestly 90 minutes
sometimes I push to 2 hours if you know
I'm really in the flow but about 90
minutes is when my brain starts to slow
down and I can't really focus for much
longer so I'd recommend 90 minutes but
here's the thing if you've never sat
down and focused for 90 minutes you
going to find it very difficult if
you've never done this before you've
never Focus for long periods of time
what you should do this is what I
learned from the entrepreneur Dan Co you
want to start small so start by focusing
for maybe 20 minutes so make your deep
work block tomorrow 20 minutes and as
you get good at that slowly increase how
long you focus for until you reach about
90 minutes so let's say you're training
your abs and you're doing blank which is
where you like balance to train your abs
if you're just starting training abs and
you do a plank for so long that you
you're in pain and you collapse you push
yourself to your limits well the next
day you're going to be so sore you're
not going to be able to do it again in
fact you're going to be sore for like a
week and it's so hard that you're going
to lose all motivation to do it again
it's the exact same thing with deep work
and focus if you've never focused for
long periods of time and you sit down
and you force yourself to focus for 2
hours 90 minutes you're going to be
burnt out for the rest of the day the
rest of the week and you're not going to
be motivated to do it again so it's much
better to start small start with like 20
minutes you know 30 minutes get that
momentum going and then slowly add time
throughout the week make sure you
literally schedule your blocks into your
calendar and if you don't have a
calendar if you're a student if you're a
a knowledge worker and you don't have a
calendar that's a whole another topic
but 100% you need to have a calendar
this is like something that all like
high performing students all knowledge
workers they all have this in common
they all use calendars because if you
follow a calendar you your brain this is
a quote I really like your brain is not
for storing information it's for
processing it I think that's how the
quote goes so you know you might think
you're a genius like oh I can remember
all my deadlines I can remember all my
schedules all my deep work blocks right
here bro but you're wasting precious
brain energy that you could use to
produce valuable output so take the
stuff that's in here and put it into
your calendar okay another thing to keep
you on track with your deep work habit
you know maybe you'll get into this deep
work habit you'll be doing it for a
couple days and then you'll completely
forget about it you'll just go back to
doing shallow work like 99% of plebs in
society you know you'll lose the
momentum until you know Penrose makes
another video reminding you to get back
onto the Deep work habit so how do you
stop this I learned this again from the
book deep work but I learned this tip
again from this book recently when I
reread it you want to track your deep
work hours because if you track how many
hours of deep work you're doing a day
then you can see the long-term trends
how long you're studying every single
day and you can work to increase it or
decrease it and you can like keep
yourself accountable for the days you're
missing it so I currently do this up
here on this wall here so right
yesterday the first day I tracked my
deep work 3 hours yesterday of deep work
today I'm going to aim for 3 hours again
so track your deep work you can do it in
a notebook track it however you want how
I personally do it is I keep tally marks
every time I put the timer on my
computer for an hour to do that deep
work block and if I get that hour done I
put one tally mark on my tracker and at
the end of the day I'll count up how
many tallies there are and I'll record
it so here's a good mindset to have here
the goal is not to like get 4 hours 4
hours 4 hours 4 hours 4 hours the goal
is to just slowly increase it over time
so maybe day one today you'll be super
hyped super motivated you'll do 1 hour
tomorrow you'll do maybe you know 20
minutes and then the next day maybe
you'll do zero hours
so you're going to fluctuate up and down
up and down that's fine a day-to-day
basis focus on a monthly and weekly
scale is the trend of deep work hours
increasing over time that's how
consistency Works consistency is never
like up up up up up consistency is like
up if you get zero put zero that's fine
just keep yourself accountable okay
another bonus tip here fourth thing to
actually doing much more deep work to to
do intense Focus it's all about your
Works Space your environment
where you're studying so like I said in
the beginning of the video there is like
there were times in my life where I was
doing deep work on like the bus on the
way home from school there were times
when I was doing deep work [ __ ] like
in my bed lying down on my phone like
typing stuff so honestly there's really
no rules when it comes to workspace when
it comes to your deep work habit there's
really no rules in this book deep work
there's a philosophy on deep work called
the journalist approach to deep work a
journalist is someone
who they they often they have to go do
stuff on a moment's notice so they can't
really schedule their deep work so they
approach deep work by doing it whenever
possible you know they've got a 3 30
minutes they'll go upstairs and they'll
type away so you can take that approach
to deep work but unless you're
intrinsically super super motivated this
is not going to work for you it's better
to schedule your deep deep work blocks
and honestly scheduling like I said
before it makes it a habit actually
makes it better for you to focus so it
is better to optimize your deep work
than it is to take this journalist
approach so the fourth thing is to
optimize your workspace so I've got my
workspace here the main workspace I use
so I can like show you it a bit so the
first thing I can tell you is you want
to elevate your workspace your computer
so if you're using a computer or you're
you know you're typing it's good to have
it elevated because if your eyes are
looking up you're going to be more alert
you're going to have more energy this is
what I learned from Andrew hubman
basically you know if you're looking up
you've got more energy if you're looking
down which is what we all do when we go
on our phones you're going to get less
energy so it is good to keep your
workspace elevated see I have three
books here which keep my workspace nice
and high I also have this [ __ ] like
nerd keyboard right here mechanical
keyboard but um yeah it's good to have
your workspace elevated that's the first
thing the second thing is notice how
there's no distractions in front of me
you want to keep distractions out of
your peripheral vision so I always talk
about locking yourself away in your
Batcave this is my Batcave you know many
students they'll go to a cafe to study
which is which can be fine but it's
distracting it's going to take your
attention away it's going to be hard to
do deep work and the next thing keep
your workspace clean I'm very guilty of
this I always have a a mess on my
workspace and I've got random [ __ ] on my
workspace here like a random like
bookmark I've got a random um candle
here that's completely fun fine but keep
it clean keep it nice and the final
thing which you're you're going to know
this you're going to think it's obvious
but you're probably not doing this most
students are not doing this you need to
remove all your
distractions do this take your phone put
it onto airplaying mode throw that [ __ ]
away in your bag most students have
their phone next to them with
notifications blowing up every second
basically if you get a notification and
you check your phone while you're doing
deep work it will take your attention
away from your deep work for 20 minutes
so you want to have zero distractions in
your environment ideally zero if you
can't have zero and you have to work
somewhere else that's fine deal with
what you can but if possible you want
zero distractions you want to be in
isolation locked away in your Batcave
like I say and this is my personal
opinion this is my philosophy on how I
use my phone I turn off the
notifications why the hell would you
want random
notifications from Instagram blowing up
throughout your day but apart from that
all my notifications are completely off
deep work is literally a philosophy for
life it's a lifestyle it's not just a
habit where you sit down and you focus
it's a way of life it's a beautiful way
of life because bro if you're like me
you want to achieve some amazing things
in your life you really want to like
make an impact on Humanity maybe make a
[ __ ] ton of money the key to doing this
is literally deep work you know the
reason the greatest people of all time
the most creativ of all all time the
reason they got to where they are is
because they could simply sit down and
focus that's the only thing that set
them apart you might think like all
their Geniuses they came they have all
these Amazing Ideas how do you think
they got those ideas by sitting down for
uninterrupted periods of time and
achieving these deep work states which
allowed them to get some serious stuff
done so when you're sitting down to
study next time you're stressed and
you're like oh I can't be bother focus
and do deep work right now bro you are
building up this habit this skill
because literally it is a skill you are
building up this skill which is going to
take you so far in your life you need to
accept yourself that life is about deep
work you know I'm not saying like oh
we're going to work all day for the rest
of our lives but you know you're
probably going to be doing some kind of
deep work task most days for the rest of
your life and that's okay that's the fun
part of life because deep work is what
gives our life meaning it when we enter
those deep States we are one with our
work we're away from the world we're
away from our thoughts our negative
thoughts we are just engaged with this
task there's this beautiful book called
The War of Art and it talks about like
how you know we enter these like
creative like states where we're like in
Another Universe we're in a whole
different world and this is what's
beautiful about deep work it's not just
you know studying hard and getting A's
it's a way of life it's a philosophy of
life so so go build the Habit see you
later
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